Gluten Free 1 Year - Tummy Aches Return

[dpoker52]

Hello - I have been using these forums for information for some time, but this is my first post. My daughter had many years of stomach aches beginning at age three. Severity and frequency varied, but were getting worse as she got older. We had a very frustrating few years with her doctor, but were able to self-diagnose as having problems with gluten about 12 months ago(EnteroLab). Since then we have had my daughter on a gluten free diet, and had a big sigh of relief because we finally knew what the issue was. Her improvement was immediate and the stomach pains were gone, it was awesome to finally have my daughter feeling better. Fast forward to today and my daughter's stomach aches have started to pop up again. For about the last three weeks, my daughter has had a slight stomach ache every three days or so. We always ask how bad it hurts on a scale of one to ten, and the recent stomahc pains are about a one to three. My daughter is good and differentiating between gluten related stomach aches and other stomache feelings(too much candy, hungry, gas, ect.), and she says these are like the gluten stomach aches she used to get, just not as bad. While there was a learning curve when we first started the gluten free diet, we feel we are fairly experienced at this point and are confident that my daughter is not eating any gluten.

Has anyone else come across this? I think my next step will be to cut out the other heavy hitters(soy, casein, and egg) to see what happens. Any other suggestions and similar experiences would be great. Thanks for your help.

[pricklypear1971]

You may want to consider gluten, still.

Symptoms change over time (I just had my first round of acid stomach/bloating from gluten and I'm right at 1 year). Sometimes if symptoms aren't managed they, themselves, can become an issue (my gluten pain turned into acidic stomach so I had to be careful with timing meals and food selection). I'm a bit over 2 weeks from my glutening and the stomach stuff is just settling down.

Keeping a food diary won't hurt. Also, she may be getting into something at school or out of the house - could be anything. She doesn't have to intentionally eat it - she could be getting cc from crumbs in tables, etc.

She also may have another intolerance. I'd hit dairy first. It's so hard to eliminate all of the ones your mentioned at once - especially for a child.

[ravenwoodglass]

Can you pinpoint anything that might have changed? Arts and crafts she started, a new pet that eats gluten food, new supplements or other medication, new toiletries etc? Are the others in your home gluten free? If not could someone have accidentally double dipped into your DD's nut butters or condiments or used her strainer or toaster?